Following an independent review, Justice Minister Arif Virani announced Wednesday that Birju Dattani will not begin his term as chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) on Thursday as planned.
Mr. Virani launched the investigation after Canadian Jewish organizations raised concerns about allegations surrounding Mr. Dattani’s past activities.
He, the first Muslim and racialized person to be appointed to the post, has previously denied allegations that he made anti-Israel statements, including what conservatives call “justification of terrorism.”
“While I carefully review this matter, Mr. Dattani has agreed to take a leave of absence and will not commence employment with the CHRC on August 8, 2024,” Minister Virani said in a statement Wednesday evening.
“I will have more to say in the coming days,” he added.
Mr. Dattani did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His lawyer has previously said his client will contest any attempt to have him removed.
The concerns stem from deleted online posts by Mr Dattani, under a different name, while he was a graduate student in London nearly a decade ago, and from a panel appearance he made around the same time alongside a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic fundamentalist group.
Mr Dattani acknowledged that in 2014 he shared an article titled Palestinians are the prisoners of today’s Warsaw ghetto. He previously told CBC News and the Globe and Mail that he did not agree with the article’s argument.
He rejected suggestions that he shared articles comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, as one 2015 post claimed. The post has since been deleted.
Mr. Virani said his top priority was maintaining confidence in the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman called on the Liberals to fire Dattani and hold public hearings into his appointment.
“Nothing about this review is independent or transparent since the entire process was put in place by the same Liberals who spent weeks trying to cover up the truth about this nomination,” she denounced in a press release Wednesday evening.
“This meaningless half-measure is not enough.”
The review was conducted by Toronto law firm Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti LLP. Virani thanked the firm on Wednesday for completing the work in such a short time frame.